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Labyrinth Lord ("LL" hereafter), is a new, very slightly revised edition of the Basic/Expert D&D boxed sets by Tom Moldvay, Steve Marsh, and David Cook that were first published in 1981.

In other words, you have entirely new writing, artwork and layout joined with rules straight from the three-hole punched red and blue booklets that so many of us remember from our youth.

Author Daniel Proctor of Goblinoid Games is proactively humble about all this, not only neglecting to take credit for the game, but going to some length to in his introduction to deflect any unearned glory, saying: "If Labyrinth Lord succeeds in being a good representative of old-school fantasy role playing, it only does so because it lies on a solid foundation. I cannot, and would not, pretend to take any of the credit."

He is, in my opinion, too modest. LL may not be an all new game, but his version is even better written, laid-out, and organized than its illustrious predecessors. No small feat there.

LL is a free game. The complete rulebook is available for download at Goblinoid Games' website, and both softcover and hardcover editions can be purchased for extremely reasonable prices from online print-on-demand site Lulu.com. Moreover, Goblinoid Games recently completed a successful distribution fundraising drive, so you can expect to see print copies of LL for sale on the shelves of game stores very soon.

My copy of LL is an attractive standard sized hardbound RPG rulebook featuring the the red and yellow "alternate" cover design (LL offers two cover options, this and a purple-dominated design). The interior pages are black-and-white, thick, and non-glossy. Overall, the book is attractive and very sturdy.

Layout is two-column and the text is clear and readable. It is never, thankfully, superimposed over any sort of watermark or background illustration.

Mistakes in the text are minimal and mostly not obtrusive. Author Proctor has been very receptive to errata submissions from readers, and the book's source files are regularly updated to incorporate them.

Art is somewhat sparse, but very in keeping with a classic D&D theme and generally good. Expect clerics with plate mail and maces, wizards with beards and pointy hats, portly halflings, etc.

After introductions, including a very fitting tribute to the late Tom Moldvay, LL jumps straight into character creation.

I won't go into detail on LL's rules, because they can be read in full for free by anyone viewing this review, but I will address a few major differences between this edition of the game and most others.

First is character classes. LL offers seven: Cleric, fighter, magic-user, thief, dwarf, elf, and halfling.

This is the first point where GMs more used to AD&D and later editions of D&D are apt to be left scratching their heads. "Elf" is a class? Where are the paladins, rangers, etc?

My advice: DON'T WORRY. In reality, this "problem" is more an illusion than anything. Some things to bear in mind:

1. New classes aren't always required for every character concept. A ranger can easily be a fighter with a background in nature lore and tacking and great rapport with animals.

2. Demihumans with "human classes" are very easily accomplished. Consider that a dwarf is equal to a fighter with a handful of special abilities, such as infravision and improved saving throws. Thus, combining that handful of special abilities with the cleric class instead of the fighter class to make a dwarf cleric is literally as easily done as said.

3. "Multiclass" characters are also a breeze. Consider the elf, which has the abilities of the fighter and magic-user. Elves have a d6 hit die than allows more hit points than the magic-user but less than the fighter and require almost twice as much experience as other classes to advance in level. One easily extrapolate an AD&D-style "fighter/thief" class in much the same way. Or a cleric/fighter paladin type. Or anything, really.

4. LL is so similar to other earlier editions of (A)D&D, that adding new classes from them is easy. If you want to run an avenger from the D&D Rules Cyclopedia or a monk from AD&D 1st edition, little, if any adjustments need be made to the source material to accomplish this.

On to alignment. LL has three: Lawful (usually assumed to be the predictable and good), Neutral (selfishness and/or desire for balance), and Chaotic (usually assumed to be the unpredictable and evil).

This is probably truer to the game's source material, such as Michael Moorcock's Eternal Champion tales and Poul Anderson's Three Hearts and Three Lions than any other alignment scheme, but it can take some getting used to. Thankfully, this sort of thing doesn't actual impact play much in my experience.

Finally there's magic. Unlike games based on AD&D, LL spells do not make use of material components or variable casting times. Every spells requires only words and gestures and is completed during the spellcaster's initiative phase.

One final thing I want to discuss is the few differences between LL and its source material. Here's a rundown:

1. Cleric spells. Clerics can cast a single spell at first level, whereas previously they had to function as undead-turning fighters until they could "earn" their first spell at second level.

2. Experience. Experience point tables are very slightly tweaked, presumably for copyright reasons. A LL thief needs 1251 point for second level instead of 1200, for example, and an elf needs 4001 instead of 4000.

3. Equipment. LL's weapon and armor listings are significantly expanded and prices have been tweaked. For example, Basic D&D had three types of swords: Short, normal, and two-handed. LL expands the normal category to include longswords, scimitars, and bastard swords. Pricing for armor has increased on average, with the cost of chain mail jumping from 40 to 150 gold pieces. Thankfully, all characters now receive 3d8 gold at first level instead of 3d6, which should help offset this.

4. Monsters. Only one new monster has been added that I can see. It's the morlock, a degenerate subterranean strain of human with cannibalistic tendencies that makes a good orc or goblin substitute for those burnt out on such. Some monster names have been changed, again presumably to dodge copyright issues. For example, the carrion crawler is a now a carcass scavenger and the displacer beast is now a phase tiger. Monster treasure types are now given as Roman numerals instead of letter designations.

5. More high-level options. The original boxed sets upon which LL is based did not include rules for characters above 14th level. LL supports characters of any level. While experience point charts only run to level 20 for space purposes, higher level experience requirements can be derived from them, and some classes, like the fighter, continue to gain not just hit points, but new abilities after level 20. Because of this, LL also contains cleric spells from levels 6 to 7 and magic-user spells from levels 7 to 9, none of which were present in the original Basic/Expert rulebooks.

Those are the main differences that I can spot, and I'll wager that anything else is so cosmetic as to be virtually invisible.

So is LL for you? That depends. Are you looking for a version of classic D&D that's a little more detailed that Gygax and Arneson's original 1974 set, but much, much less detailed than any other version, to include the "BECMI" edition that was compiled in the D&D Rules Cyclopedia?

If so, LL is for you. It's a complete, affordable classic RPG with absolutely everything vital for play, absolutely nothing of marginal utility, and a simply gorgeous presentation. It's D&D with the fat trimmed and the lean not only intact, but accentuated. LL is ultimately a class act (no pun intended) all the way.

Finally, I promised you a playtest review of sorts, and I intend to deliver. Rather than detail it all here in my review, though, here's a link to a detailed play-by-play description of my first LL session this last weekend. Enjoy!

Style: 4
Substance: 5